Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Could It Be?

So the other day I was driving home from the grocery store and I was stuck at the light. We have some of the longest lights in the world here in Las Vegas. I often consider reading a good book during the time.

I looked over and noticed a man on a bicycle, also waiting at the light. In his hands he had two large bags of groceries, and a large box of something else. He was trying to balance all his packages and get on the bike to ride it, but it was proving impossible. He then tried to push the bike and that also proved impossible.

I have to admit I was a bit perplexed by the situation he found himself in. He knew he had a bike for his ride home, so why all the big purchases? I thought for a moment about being nice and offering to drive him home and then I realized that was a wildly unsafe proposal. The kind of decision that ends with a loved one saying "My wife would never offer a ride to a stranger" and a choice that is totally out of my typical realm of comfort. I was feeling fine with my decision, until I noticed the large box.

"Is that cat litter?" I wondered aloud. I had sudden visions in my head of cats hovering by the door with their paws crossed waiting for his return. Guilt came over me. Surely he couldn't be a bad guy if he was risking life and limb to bring home cat litter. "Maybe it's not litter?" I said as I squinted to try and read the box at a distance.

It seemed I could make out the Arm and Hammer logo, and my heart sank. It was litter. But wait, another twist of his wrist and I saw it was laundry detergent.

"Thank Cod it's only laundry detergent!" I said filled with relief. I'm sure he was a good person, with dirty clothes, but I was grateful to the universe that I no longer felt compelled to help imaginary cats get their litter box issues under control.

It is indeed unfortunate that we have to think twice, thrice, however many times before we either offer or not offer to help a person.In your situation, if it WERE indeed cat litter, I may have offered to drive the litter to where his home is and leave him to cycle home. :)

It is sad that we have to think twice before we can do anything like that now. When I was in my early teens, my friend and I used to hitch hike to the beach every week in complete safety. Of course there were bad people around then, but they were so few and far between and we never imagined there could be any danger.